Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have three questions for the Minister today. The first relates to persons in category four. We need a clearer outline of how people in this category are to be notified about their vaccination. I am hearing about a lot of complicated scenarios, whereby consultants have told patients it is the responsibility of their GP but the GP has no knowledge and people are getting confused. We do our best and the staff we deal with in the HSE are excellent but I am keen to avert and avoid confusion. Unfortunately, according to Twitter today, there are doctors on social media saying that because of the abuse they are getting from those who are expecting to be vaccinated by their GPs and the lack of clarity, they are going to quit the vaccine programme. I ask the Minister to make sure that is addressed and the problem does not fester.

The second issue is that there appears to be no way to cancel a registration on the IT portal. People have come to me who have spent hours trying to cancel over the phone because they have been contacted by their doctor and have actually received the vaccine.

My concern, as well as theirs, is a no-show would mean a vaccine going to waste. I am not sure how it can be addressed but it is important.

Many people have been asking me for the daily vaccination figures on a local electoral area basis. I appreciate there is plenty to be done but people endured the daily death figures for the past 12 months and that had a significant impact on people's lives and morale and what we have been through. It would be a significant morale boost if people knew the vaccination figures, even on a county basis, so that if 150,000 people were to be vaccinated in County Wexford, we might get to a stage at which we can see we are nearly at 70%. It would have a significant effect on people's morale.

A cohort of people are living, married and have families in Ireland but are working abroad. Many of them have contacted me because they are in receipt of the Sinopharm vaccine which is not one of the recognised vaccines. It means they would have to enter into quarantine, fully vaccinated, but not with a recognised HSE vaccine. They would end up having to quarantine and pay for it, have little or no time to see their families and then, possibly, return to quarantine when they return to work. I ask that somebody might consider how that would be catered for.

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